What do you call a situation where a President, elected on a populist platform that was based on lies, where many of those who advised him have already ended up in prison, whose primary aim is to bolster the corporate sector, and who consciously feeds division within the society he governs as well as beyond it, seeks to turn his own military forces onto those who seek to express alternative opinion within that state? The onset of fascism appears to be the most appropriate response. And that, I suggest is what is happening in the USA.
It was always presumed that fascism would arrive though the ballot box. It was often said it would be carrying a Bible, although the person carrying it would be utterly indifferent as to its content. And that has happened. But it makes it no less shocking, nonetheless.
Daily, what was once unthinkable now happens. And in the process tolerance changes. The tolerance of the divisions within society might be exposed but tolerance of the Presidential excess to defend the status quo is normalised, worn down by shock that any of this is happening.
All of which matters. The USA is a country I would never have wanted to live in. Amongst many other issues, its grossly unfair penal system has for decades made clear that black lives do not matter, because far too many black men are incarcerated, often for life and for the most trivial of reasons. The discrimination implicit in that system is repugnant and indicative of all the other issues that are rightly surfacing now. The truth is, the American dream is not my dream, not least because it was built on that injustice: gross gains for a few in the way the US has idolised has meant oppression for vast numbers. And yet, like it or not, the US is too big to ignore. So what it does has consequences.
One consequence is that other countries ape its practices. And I am not just talking about Brazil. So too has Johnson done that here. He has shown contempt for parliament and democracy: we saw it, yet again, yesterday. He breached election law in the 2016 Brexit campaign. He has shamelessly picked on minorities in society - making life for migrants as hard as possible. And he repeatedly lies, without any apparent conscience. Now his behaviour with regard to Covid-19 reveals not just incompetence (which seems to go with this form of fascism, almost without saying) but indifference to the fate of many in the UK, who will needlessly die early as a result of the inappropriate ending of lockdown, which is bound to increase the risk of a second wave of coronavirus.
Is this, then, also fascism? In that democracy is being abused, parliamentary oversight of law is being suspended by much current legislation, executive power without accountability is being extended, and the use of that power is clearly intended to benefit some at cost to others, I would say so, without a doubt. The issues may not be as stark as they are in the USA as yet, but don't be fooled: Johnson, Cummings and Give simply see the USA as good cover right now. In their book the riots must be a gift because they got Cummings off the front page.
The fact is that where Trump goes others follow. I strongly suspect Johnson has every intention of copying most of what Trump does. The threat is very, very real. Covid 19 provides convenient excuse, but the plan was always there.
We are rightly shocked by the USA. But please remember to be shocked about what is happening in the UK too. The government issued a report on the excess deaths of members of the BAME community from Covid-19 yesterday without offering explanation or a plan on how to address the issue. The indifference of the USA may be slightly more carefully framed in the UK, but only slightly. That report did not answer necessary questions, in which context it more than failed: it did instead reveal a deeply worrying lack of willing.
This country can be, is and will remain oppressive to many unless action is taken. The risk of fascism is very real. No one needs to be paranoid to appreciate that. Its presence is far too apparent to think anything else.
And yes, I am worried. I fear that there is an intention post-Brexit to make abuse considerably more systemic because that is, ultimately, what the vote was all about. And it would require me to deny all that I am to not be worried about that. I fear we've not seen the half of this as yet. And as in the US, things are only going to get uglier.
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Whether fascism is the right word or not, which no doubt some will dispute, it seems to me that the UK is being run by a mafia…..a network of connected individuals and organisations which are infiltrating and dismantling the institutions of democracy and taking over state assets. It’s not unlike the gangster capitalism of post Soviet Russia. Hitler and the Nazis took about 6 months to dismantle the institutions of the Weimar Republic once they secured power through the ballot box. In the UK we have an elected dictatorship using the power of the state, including its power to create money, to support selected big businesses with the support of billionaire media moguls who fill the population’s heads with propaganda and deception. Thus we see contracts being awarded to companies with personal connections in the mafia network without any tendering process and covid19 bailouts without conditions. And we have an Attorney General who seems intent on corrupting our legal institutions. Whatever you want to call it its the destruction of democracy in the UK.
Given the lemming like way, with a few exceptions, that the Tory MPs were willing to vote to disenfranchise a significant number of their colleagues yesterday, and in the process to support a disregard of the rules around the eased lockdown we can be sure that the Conservative party is more than happy to endorse every move to full blown fascism.
George Monbiot in The Guardian this morning
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/03/britain-democracy-tories-coronavirus-public-power?
He is right
I wish I thought you were wrong about this……
One of the most disgusting aspects of the ‘democracy’ we now live under is the disenfranchising of up to 200 MPs and their constituents who, because of their need to protect themselves or others from Covid-19 and unable to attend parliament in person, have been denied the capacity to take part in debates and, worst of all, unable to vote.
Given the extent to which electronic communication plays such a large part in our lives now with ideas and opinions exchanged, why has this ‘government’ taken such a step backward?
The ridiculous ‘votes’ in Westminster yesterday with MPs queuing out into courtyards which took hours when, in Scotland, electronic voting is completed in minutes.
You name it, Brexit, immigration, Covid etc , and now this, Bozo and his mates has turned this country into a laughing stock. But this is no laughing matter, this is serious.
This is a deliberate ploy to make parliament inoperable – which is the real aim
I’m sure you will once again tell me to stop posting this comment on your site but if you keep failing to understand it bears repeating. Of course there are many issues to discuss but the most fundamental one is ‘Who is in power and able to advance their agenda?’.
This; RM; “And yes, I am worried. I fear that there is an intention post-Brexit to make abuse considerably more systemic because that is, ultimately, what the vote was all about. And it would require me to deny all that I am to not be worried about that. I fear we’ve not seen the half of this as yet.”
is pure hypocrisy. Everyone in this country and on this site was repeatedly warned about the fascist nature of the Tory faction leading that party which fought the recent election. There could be no question who they were and what they stood for. At all. All of the things you’re worried about and many more will become reality as a result of Labour failing to win that election. When they had a chance to do so. Yet you and a host of others chose to help the largely Tory press at that moment, ignoring the stark choice before you, by valuing some mythical aspect of the ‘leader qualities’ of one man over the comprehensive prospect of this fascism. You made the wrong choice by not backing a social, empathetic, policy-driven party platform over simple fascism.
Try not to say ‘It was not my fault, Corbyn should have been more appealing’. Please. It’s your influence we’re talking about, it was your choice what to do with it.
So this post full of hand-wringing impresses few. Too late to worry now, it’s happened. This is your government in a small but very, very important part.
I voted Labour
If you did not notice me opposing the Tories, others did
And you are simply seeking to alienate people
So very politely, stop talking pure undiluted BS and let the rest of us get on with doing what the far left were utterly incapable of – which is delivering the sustainable, mixed, resilient, democrat economy that this country needs and of which you with your utter stupidity (there is no other word for it) were incapable of precisely because of the arrogance so apparent in this crass comment
The big problem at the last election and in the period leading up to it was that a large majority of the PLP failed to support Corbyn. Their whole philosophy appeared to be against anything approaching social democracy let alone democratic socialism. Most of the PLP would feel total strangers in Attlee or Wilson’s party. For a bunch of Labour MPs to take out adverts telling people not to vote labour was utterly disgusting. Good luck to Starmer in leading that lot. If he can lead them he must be going in the wrong direction.
I don’t agree with AllanW that you were somehow responsible for the Tory win but the idea that there is a polite, near/close/proximate left (is there a term for not-far left?) that can gain power via the ballot and implement the ideas you present in order to create an equitable, sustainable mixed-economy society and so on, seems completely out of touch with reality.
Of course the “far” left can’t achieve change. No left can achieve change. Corbyn is a very mildly left politician. McDonnel, as you repeatedly pointed out, was peddling a neoliberal economic model. Yet the billionaires couldn’t tolerate him and worked with Mossad to take him out.
In other words, I don’t think the nice stuff you aspire to “delivering the sustainable, mixed, resilient, democrat economy that this country needs…” is any more feasible under the current system than the anarcho-syndicalist wet-dream that I and maybe AllanW share.
The reason is that all we have is Tories. I know, you can’t see that Starmer and the current Labour party in that light yet. But I am pretty sure that if I’d made a comment on your site six months ago about the Tories being perfectly willing to actively kill large numbers of British people in order to protect money and power, you’d have called me a loony yet here we are.
And where we are is hurling towards the edge of the cliff at an alarming rate. We are facing the death of the ecosystem, a horrendous future for your kids. We have, in this country the seed of a fully fascist authoritarian state and the public voted for it as a result of profound ignorance of the glaringly obvious. This is, quoth Basil Fawlty, exactly… (I don’t need to finish the sentence.)
There is no solution here that comes from Parliament. Unfortunately, I think only further catastrophes will shake things up enough for the radical action required (and your Green New Deal is radical even as I find it insufficiently aware of the real state of industrial civilisation, read Zerzan, hahahahaha). Yet this crisis is only entrenching the fascist tendency of our society.
We’re in a bind. It’s quite terrifying.
I simply do not agree
To think we can only have a revolution to solve this crisis is simply wrong, in my opinion
Richard, you made you views plane on the subject of a Corbyn led government. That is your democratic right. You preferred a different leader and perhaps a different vision of society. That also is your democratic right. Jeremy Corbyn had that rare quality of leadership, a leader ‘at one with his troops’. Mr Corbyn understood that to rescue our society from the clutches of the present ‘mafia’ a different way of doing politics was necessary. A way of doing politics that released the only forces capable of bringing real change namely the democratic agency of the whole of society. Ruling over us should not be left to a criminalgenic elite together with the window dressing of a faux opposition. To those in power this development cannot be allowed under any circumstances. Hence both methods fair and foul – mostly foul were employed to ensure Labour’s defeat.
Incidentally any leadership qualities he was perceived to lack could have been supplied by a good number two. Unfortunately in this respect he was also grievously betrayed.
John
I saw Corbyn very close up
He was a hopeless manager
He also had very little broadly based experience
And he had a number 2 – it was John McDonnell – and he was deeply neoliberal – look at the fiscal rule
Nothing stacked about Corbyn
As I told Polly Toynbee a long time ago his problem was he was far too right wing – because he was in far too many ways, whilst leaving himself very exposed elsewhere
In many respects I have more hopes of the current leadership being on the real left – but I am also well aware I may well be disappointed
Richard
AllanW
Your post is not really accurate at all. Sure – Richard and others on this blog have criticised the Corbyn era. But has that caused the damage and resulted in what we have now? If this blog was that influential, would we have the fiscal policies we have now?!! It’s a blog that is used as a nursery ground for new ideas really used in other campaigns – successfully too.
Corbyn’s time was all about heart really – I believe that those involved in the Left did genuinely want to help the country. However, they did so with very little imagination – despite what had happened in 2008. Fiscal orthodoxy still dominates the Labour party as much as the Tory party. ‘Caring’ is great, but you have to have the technical nous to realise the caring as well as the guts and courage to fundamentally change things. I did not see those qualities in Corbyn’s Labour.
Other causal elements were BREXIT – remember how that tied Parliament up in knots as well as the Labour party? And how did Labour deal with that? Very poorly if I remember.
And finally we come to the Party itself. Did you ever read the leaked report into Labour’s handling of Anti-semitism AllanW? I have – all 800+ pages of it. It could be like my late Mother said – ‘it was six of one and half a dozen of the other’ – but Labour’s Right wing has a lot to answer for in my view. Labour could end up like the U.S. Democrats if they are not careful and look at how that party strangled the more progressive Bernie Saunder’s nomination TWICE and how it has undermined Cortez and other new representatives.
Be that as it may, the plain fact is that Labour simply went missing when the country needed them the most. They chose to fight each other in the same party instead of taking on the Tories.
The LP has been a disgrace of an opposition AllanW and that has nothing to do with this blog. It is to do with the Party itself. It had better get its house in order because no matter how bad the Tories are I will not vote for them until they do.
And believe you me – it had better be good next time. I’m expecting better – much better.
Trump has corporate mercenaries on the streets in the USA now. I’ll say it again; we can expect them here soon. Next year I’d think. Their numbers will be swelled by offering promotion to the weak and the incompetent, those who’d never advance in any merit-based society. It worked for the Nazis, and it’ll work here too. I expect it’ll be welcomed here with open arms if it offers employment and an income as both will be scarce indeed due to govt’s weak approach to COVID and of course the insistence on going through with no-deal Brexit. Boris won’t be World King but he’ll have made a small world he’s king in. A hell he can reign in, in fact. I wonder again where I can hide my food stores when the local branch of Blackwater begin house to house searches…
I concur 100%. As George Carlin said: “It’s called the American Dream because you’ve got to be asleep to believe it.” If populations don’t wake up soon it will be too late. And, as in the 1930s, there is no shortage of warning signs.
Neil Faulkner’s book: ‘Creeping Fascism: Brexit, Trump, and the Rise of the Far Right’ was published in 2017. He believes history is repeating itself, albeit in slow motion. Here he discusses the ‘Psychology of Fascism’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGMbsojp7ZQ. While he’s not the best speaker in the world, the content is very relevant to what we’re increasingly witnessing in countries across the globe, e.g. US, UK, Russia, Brazil, Hungary, Poland, India, The Phillipines, et al.
Dominic Cummings is a neo-Fascist, which is why his influence is so dangerous. He is openly an admirer of Vladislav Surkov. So, if it looks like a duck & quacks like a duck ….
Along with the environmental crisis & nuclear weapons, I believe it’s the most important threat facing global society. They are, of course, linked. As it is with the current pandemic both in terms of its causes and proposed solution of herd immunity.
The problem is how to deal with it, especially in the age of ‘HyperNormalisation’ (still available on the BBC iPlayer for anyone who’s not yet seen it).
Thanks
IT is undoubtedly fascism there is simply no other way to describe what is happening in both USA and UK.
The way that we have retreated from internationalism to ugly nationalism in Britain. The way that we have retreated from international trade to protectionism. The sense that somehow or other democracy is failing.
The habit of lying in our public discourse. What was it Goebbels said? Tell it often, tell it big … stick it on the side of a bus perhaps and drive it around the country. I’m not saying Hitler is around the corner, although you might conclude the conditions for something like that to emerge are there for all to see.
These are the terrifying parallels between Brexit and the appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-tory-labour-policy-hitler-appeasement-terrifying-parallels-a8553686.html
Michael Heseltine backs David Lammy’s Brexit Nazi comparison, saying similarities to 1930s are ‘chilling’
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/david-lammy-brexit-nazis-comparison-michael-heseltine-503718
The German people driven to starvation and despair by sanctions in the 1930s fall into the arms of Hilter, and in Britain decades later ordinary people driven by years of austerity into the arms of Brexit.
Fascism for school children already being delivered
The UK’s largest arms exporter, BAE Systems, is being facilitated to offer careers advice and workshops to children aged 9-12 years old.
In some cases, pre-teenage and teenage children are being taught by arms company staff how to build drones and “sniff” on their classmates’ internet connections.
The programme, known as the Cyber Schools Hub (CSH) or CyberFirst, is operating in over 40 schools and gives GCHQ access to British children as young as four for activities promoting so-called “cyber security”. The UK government plans to roll out the programme nationwide. Programme literature shows that GCHQ is aggressively pushing for arms companies to enter schools.
It can further be revealed that the programme, paid for by British taxpayers, is providing equipment to the world’s largest arms company, the US corporation Lockheed Martin, to incentivise it to enter schools in Gloucestershire, the county in southwest England where the CSH pilot scheme is mainly running.
The taxpayer has paid undisclosed sums for school children to attend work experience at Lockheed Martin, which opened a £3-million “Cyber Works” facility in Gloucester in 2017.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-06-03-revealed-harry-potter-british-spies-and-the-arms-corporations-penetrating-uk-schools/
I am not wholly convinced by this
Is there any collaboration?
I do not dismiss it, but need more evidence
This, apparently is what a lot of people want, here and in the US.
Quoting from a popular but iffy film;
“So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause”
Trump is the last throw of the dice for the Libertarian Tea Party idiots. The polls are already swinging in favour of Biden, placeman that he is. Johnson and Cummings will certainly bring the UK to its knees during the next four and half years and that will be reflected in their rejection at the next election. As Forrest Gump said “Stupid is as stupid does!”
There’s a very real chance he could fake election results. This is relatively easy with electronic voting machines, given they are privately controlled, and has quite likely happened in the past – for instance the 2000 election which was ruled in favour of Bush by the Supreme Court, and Diebold’s dodgy voting machines in that were extremely suspicious.
He’s also been attacking mail in voting (which actually is harder to manipulate, being as it’s paper based and decentralised). It happens in other countries regularly, I don’t see why it couldn’t happen in the US, given the power he now has over government apparatus. It’s arguable it already has happened in Florida, but there was never a smoking gun to prove that.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacking_Democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hursti_Hack
I fear you are correct.
Yesterday I spoke to an octogenarian friend who along with his wife had decided to only read impartial reports from Spectator magazine with additional input from the Daily Telegraph. he thinks Boris is doing a good job in difficult circumstances.
We had a good conversation about this and US governments dismantling their own pandemic planning and making lockdown and associated measure far too little and too late, in contrast to e.g. Greece and Kerala in India and so forth. I reminded him that Britain didn’t win WWII and that those who served, as opposed to living through or with the films following WWI, were mostly of a mind that whilst EU is far from perfect, we share values with most European countries in terms of tolerance, welfare, collaboration etc.
Lately it feels like I have to explain the alternate narrative to many people I meet, including close family.
But we must plug away making that case to all we have contact with.
Indeed….and I feel that we are making progress
Amongst my inherently conservative friends – and given where I live I have them – there are signs of real discontent and desire for change
The teachers are livid!
I think it would be useful to realise that fascism is inculcated in both Left and Right political thinking to an an extent (even Labour’s ‘For the Many not the Few’ sets one set of the population against the other in the hope of winning power on the back of people’s disgruntlement with others).
When you look at Communism as practiced by the Soviet Russians – well, I see fascism really.
This is why I’m drawn to the idea of a ‘progressive’ future as opposed to a traditional Left one (or liberal for that matter) as unlike the Left, the truly progressive route is one that can adopt or take under its wing issues like the environment.
I’m sure some sort of ‘progressive populism’ can be built out of the ruins of the Left – the message being that looking after the environment, a good tax system and a proactive Government (to name a few) is good for everyone – not just for one section of the population.
Left and right defines materialist concepts and they are beginning to be irrelevant
Yes – agreed, absolutely, but may I also say that both Right and the ‘soft’ Left are not very respectful of democracy either and the progressive ideas I have read on this blog, democracy would certainly get a boost if they were taken up.
I agree with Chantal Mouffe that both Right & Left work towards hegemony for themselves – this makes them technically undemocratic (stops the development of more inclusive politics such as PR) and also has absolutely no idea how to deal with movements like Occupy, the MMT/DMF ‘movement’, Green, Extinction Rebellion etc., that could reinvigorate politics if they were somehow co-opted into established political structures.
Actually, established Right & Left do know how to deal with such new and emerging ‘from the ground up’ movements – they simply ignore them until they go away. That is not democracy in any shape or form and both Left and Right are guilty as charged in my book.
Unfortunately, I can’t respond inline.
I think your evaluation of Corbyn is correct, obviously you have much more direct experience of the fellow (I have none). And I agree with you about McDonnell (too lazy to check the spelling). And saying Corbyn was not left-wing enough is entirely sensible in my worthless opinion but even hoping that the current party is in any way shape or form leftist even to the extent that Corbyn is, seems completely bonkers. Starmer couldn’t be a bigger cheerleader for Israel, an actual Apartheid state that’s practicing brutal genocide against the Palestinian people. That’s all I need to know. You cannot take a positive approach towards Israel without being a racist or completely deluded. (I am a Jewish person and an Israeli citizen who spent my childhood there, I know what I’m talking about. I left Labour, though, before they could chuck me out for “antisemitism”.)
I respect your views
I am no big fan of the Israeli government and its policies
But I also have to be honest and say Israel is nit the biggest issue in UK politics
Objectively I think you would have to agree
I totally agree that Israel is not the biggest issue. It’s not in itself an issue in British politics at all. But support for Israel is a litmus test. Like his support for the Indian abuses in Kashmir. A leftist would not be supporting these. A decent human being would not be.
By the by, I wanted to respond to your point about revolution. In the absence of belief that voting will not bring about change, is revolution the only thing to consider? I would be lying if I said I didn’t occasionally fantasise about an angry mob storming the HoC and certain people ending up dangling from lampposts on The Mall but in reality I can’t imagine a violent revolution resulting in positive change. I think the standard idea of revolution would only result in a more traumatised and violent population and it would be impossible to build something positive out of it. It would lead to authoritarianism. I like the idea of organisations that aim to replace the institutions of the state by developing community and mutual support for people with a view to making the current system redundant. As I write that it sounds pretty silly. But I don’t have any other ideas. As I say, we are in a bind.
We agree on the last! Undoubtedly true
And we will also get out of it
The route may not be pretty…
Starmer’s wife is jewish and his children.
Whilst I might agree that at this present moment Israel is not the UK’s greatest problem, it is clear that the Israeli government is more than happy to interfere in UK politics as I have no doubt that they had a significant hand in the orchestrated antisemitism campaign against Corbyn and Labour. They will also further destabilise the Middle East and give succour to Isis followers so they cannot be ignored. We are distracted at the moment with Covid and the impending disaster of Brexit. Another area that Israel may have influenced- they have no love of the EU.
Richard,
There’s a thread on Twitter about the following quote, allegedly by Sinclair Lewis. The thread starts as follows:
“Lots of people sharing the famous quotation from Sinclair Lewis today: “When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving the cross.”
It’s a good quote, but Lewis never said it. Quick thread on attribution:”
Whoever said it, got it right – Trump, metaphorically wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, and holding up a Bible (said to be upside-down, BTW), outside a church.
There is a Mafia ruling us right now, but it is missing a military organisation for me to be comfortable calling the regime full on fascism. Some members of the government are fascists, I’m comfortable with calling them that. The Tufton Street, ERG, Bruges Group lot. 100%.
This regime, with Brexit, will be able to work to make all kinds of abuses of power completely legal, therefore all opposition or criticism illegal, whether they come from the press, the instituons, or the people.
Even within EU institutions, both Poland and Hungary are advancing to abuse the rule of Law, so outside it, the UK will find it a breeze.
We’re just missing a military back up. But we’ll have a police which may well be given special powers, Martial Law style, at the drop of a hat, and within a year or so, we may well be into full fascist mode institutionally, and certainly the present Cabinet would welcome it. I can’t see anyone resigning in protest. I can’t see the police refusing to obey orders…but maybe there’s hope there.
We’ve been heading there since 2016. It takes a time.
It can be stopped, but I’m not too sure enough people want it to be.
Enough people need to be prepared to take a stand, refuse to obey orders, use all the legal means of protests and challenge we still have.
But look at what happened when Rees-Mogg recalled Parliament for that vote. No one decided to organise a protest of some kind. Absolutely pathetic. No solidarity shown to their shielding colleagues.
That really signalled to me that we’re in trouble.
“far too many black men are incarcerated, often for life and for the most trivial of reasons. The discrimination implicit in that system is repugnant”
One of the first actions of Trump was to pass the First Step Act. The act expanded rehabilitative opportunities, increased “good time”-served credits for most federal prisoners, reduced mandatory minimum sentences for a number of drug-related crimes and formally banned some correctional practices including the shackling of pregnant women.
It was universally acknowledged in the US that this would disproportionately benefit African Americans who as you say, had been disproportionately disadvantaged by the legal system in place under earlier Presidents.
Since its passing over 2,500 inmates, most African Americans, have had disproportionately long sentances related to crack cocaine offences reduced and a further 3,000 inmates, mostly African Americans have been released early because of good behaviour while in prison.
Trump passed legislation prioritising and increasing funding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The Farm Bill included more than $100 million dollars for scholarships, research, and centers of excellence at HBCU land-grant institutions.
Faith-based HBCUs now enjoy equal access to Federal support.
Further legislation provided $255 million dollars of permanent annual funding for HBCUs and other Minority Serving Institutions.
Of course, these are facts and so easily ignored if your mind is closed and your views pre-determined.
I rather suspect – in fact I am sure – that this is a decidedly Trumpian view of facts
Yes, I am sure there are some very fine people on both sides.
I doubt it
I think some are better than others
I’m as wary of throwing the term ‘fascism’ around too lightly, as I am of ‘communist’. However, Eco’s definition of ‘Ur Fascism’ is as good as any and when you go through his check-list, the UK is ticking virtually all the boxes, as is the USA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
That said, I felt that Corbyn and members of his immediate team had an unhealthy nostalgia for regimes such as East Germany, which was as bad or worse. That holiday he took there was a bizarre choice.
I’d recommend a read of Anne Applebaum’s recent article in the Atlantic which compares how the Republican party in the USA stands idly by as Trump destroys the USA, with those party members in East Germany who knew how rotten their regime was. For Trump and the Republicans, you can read Johnson and todays Conservative party.
And I’d agree that Adam Curtis’s Hypernormal is a must-watch – he was very prescient
Goodness, I hadn’t appreciated that anyone who visited a communist country must have ulterior motives of wishing to impost communism on the UK. I must have been asleep- I don’t recall any nostalgia for East Germany. Are you equally concerned about the extremely close and undeniable links between the Conservative party and many Russian oligarchs? Dominic Cummings lived in Russia for several years- far more concerning than a brief holiday trip to East Germany.
The problem with Corbyn/ism was that he/it wasn’t serious enough about winning elections.
1/ Go back to 2012.
https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/185542633056239616?lang=en
Corbyn congratulated George Galloway on beating the Labour Party Candidate in the Bradford West by-election. He should have been disciplined for that: maybe have the Whip removed?Labour is a Parliamentary Party. We try to get enough MPs elected to become the Government. Yet here was one of its MPs welcoming its defeat. Is it any surprise that lots of our MPs found it hard to take him seriously as Leader? I know I wouldn’t have been able to if I’d been in their place.
2/. During the first leadership election campaign, I spoke to long-standing members who were also friends. I told them it would take years for Corbyn to establish himself as a serious politician. We could kiss the next election goodbye with him as Leader. The first three replies, word-for-word…
“I’m not bothered.”
“I don’t care.”
“Voting for him will make me feel better about myself.”
Do I need to say more? These people were not voting for someone to lead us to an election victory. It was all bit of a game to them.
And then there was the group of people I earwigged at a 60th birthday party. They hated what the Tories were doing. They desperately wanted an alternative. They were in favour of Labour’s policies. But Corbyn? They couldn’t take him seriously as Prime Minister.
“A superannuated student.”
“A professional protester.”
I kept shtum…….but if pushed, I would have had to agree with them.
3/ Then there was all that pathetic, cult-like, infatuation-tat. It’s all evidence of a cheapened, personality-cult, political culture.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-dress-Jeremy-Corbyn-book/dp/0956329047/ref=sr_1_35?dchild=1&keywords=Corbyn&qid=1591541976&sr=8-35
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sorry-listening-thinking-JEREMY-CORBYN/dp/1671521242/ref=sr_1_47?dchild=1&keywords=Corbyn&qid=1591541976&sr=8-47
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MG3879-JEREMY-Novelty-Printed-Ceramic/dp/B073QS4911/ref=sr_1_64?dchild=1&keywords=Corbyn&qid=1591542018&sr=8-64
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Guide-Being-Jeremy-Corbyn/dp/1911570471/ref=sr_1_96?dchild=1&keywords=Corbyn&qid=1591542761&sr=8-96
And the name-chanting.
And the icon-like placards with his face on.
And the Selfies. Oh, the Selfies!! Now, what sort of people are so self-absorbed that they think they gain anything by being photographed next to someone else? What do they see in it? And what sort of person so craves attention that he accedes to requests for them? He finally lost me here. Anyone with a really serious approach to politics would have said that there would be no selfies……they are everything real politics isn’t…..a cheap, easy, shallow way to show how “involved” you are.
4/ And what better way to sum up the problem at the end?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-corbyn-ally-jon-lansman-21086731
Mr Lansman was asked for his assessment of Mr Corbyn’s future by ITV News.
Asked if Jeremy Corbyn ’s leadership was finished, Mr Lansman said: “I think Jeremy should make these decisions for himself. He’s always been a reluctant leader, but I think he should be allowed to decide for himself.”
A RELUCTANT Leader? Surely you can’t be any real sort of Leader at all if you’re reluctant? And what on earth did John Lansman think he was doing, promoting someone who he knew was reluctant to do the job?
For Lansman and far too many Labour members I came across, Corbyn/ism wasn’t about the boring grind of winning elections. As a member put it online at the end, “Say what you like about Corbyn, he made me feel better about being in the Labour Party.”